University Privacy Policy

BALIUAG UNIVERSITY PRIVACY POLICY

Baliuag University (the “School”) is bound by the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (the “Act”). It is committed to respecting each student’s personal privacy while ensuring its ability to fully carry out its responsibilities.

This Privacy Policy sets out how the School manages personal information provided to or collected by it, who uses and how the information is used, how the information is shared, how long the information is retained, how a data breach is handled and what the student’s rights are with respect to his/her personal information.

The School may, from time to time and at its sole discretion, review and update this Policy to take account of new laws and technology, changes to the School’s operations and practices and to make sure it remains appropriate to the changing School environment. The School will post and publish notice of any such modification, which shall be effective immediately upon posting or publication.

What kind of personal information does the school collect?

The type of information the School collects and holds includes (but is not limited to) personal information1, including health and other sensitive information2 that you provide before, during and after the course of your enrollment at the School. On occasions when third parties provide personal information, without or upon the School’s request, the School will determine if it can legitimately keep such information. It will be treated in the same manner as information you provide the School if it is related to the School’s legitimate educational interests; otherwise, the information will be disposed of in a way that will safeguard your privacy.

[1] Personal information refers to any information whether recorded in a material form or not, from which the identity of an individual is apparent or can be reasonably and directly ascertained by the entity holding the information, or when put together with other information would directly and certainly identify an individual.

(2) About an individual’s health, education, genetic or sexual life of a person, or to any proceeding for any offense committed or alleged to have been committed by such person, the disposal of such proceedings, or the sentence of any court in such proceedings;

(3) Issued by government agencies peculiar to an individual which includes, but not limited to, social security numbers, previous or cm-rent health records, licenses or its denials, suspension or revocation, and tax returns; and

(4) Specifically established by an executive order or an act of Congress to be kept classified.

Admission/Enrollment

Upon application for admission and registration for enrolment, the School will collect information on your personal circumstances and directory information, such as but not limited to, name, email address, telephone number and other contact details, family history, previous schools attended, academic performance, disciplinary record, medical record, etc.

Information collected upon, during and after the course of your enrolment include, but are not limited to, information relating to:

report provided by a medical professional or a reference from another school.

How does the school collect personal information?

The School will generally collect, acquire or generate personal information held about a student by way of forms filled out by parents or students, face-to-face meetings and interviews, emails and telephone calls.2.

It may also collect, acquire and generate a student’s personal information in other forms, such as but not limited to, photographic and video images, digital material or biometric records, and recordings from closed-circuit television cameras installed in the School premises for security purposes.

When you use the School’s online services and online teaching platforms, the School’s servers and those of its third party service providers automatically record information that your browser sends whenever you visit a website, such as your server address, top level domain name (e.g., .com, .gov, .ph, etc), date and time of visit to the site, pages accessed and documents viewed, previous sites visited, browser type, browser language, and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser.

In addition, information you share with others through chat sessions, email exchanges, online platforms or bulletin board discussions can be collected and used by others. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your passwords and personalization information. The general recommendation is not to disclose personal information as much as possible.

Who uses information?

Your personal information is accessed and used by School personnel who have a legitimate interest in it for the purpose of carrying out the School’s contractual obligations.

How will the school use the personal information you provide?

Personal information will only be collected for purposes necessary to the functions and activities of the School. These include selection, employment, appraisal, discipline, remuneration of staff, and School administrative activities.

The purposes for which the School uses personal information of students and parents include

(but are not limited to):

evaluating applications for admission to the School and processing confirmation of incoming students and transfer students;

soliciting student participation in research and non-commercial surveys;

keeping parents informed about matters related to the student’s schooling, through correspondence, newsletters and magazines;

seeking donations and marketing for the School; and

satisfying the School’s legal obligations and allowing the School to discharge its duty of care.

In cases where the School requests personal information about a Student or parent, if the information requested is not provided, the School may not be able to enroll or continue the enrollment of the student or permit the student to take part in a particular activity.

Who might the school disclose personal information to?

The School may disclose personal information, including sensitive information, held about a student to:

another school;

government departments;

medical practitioners;

people providing services to the School, including specialist visiting teachers, counsellors and sports coaches;

recipients of School publications, such as newsletters and magazines;

Parents or next of kin;

School’s Foundation or external fundraising organizations;

anyone you authorize the School to disclose information to;

suppliers and contractors that carry out services for the School; and

anyone to whom the School is required to disclose the information to by law.

Some examples of when we may share or disclose your personal information to others include:

posting of class lists and class schedules in school bulletin boards or other places within the campus;

sharing of information to persons, including parents, guardians or next of kin, as required by law or on a need-to-know basis as determined by the School to promote the student’s best interests, or protect a student’s health, safety and security, or that of others;

providing academic institutions, government agencies, private or public corporations, or the like, upon their request, with scholastic ranking information or certification of good moral character for purposes of admission;

distributing the list of graduates and awardees during commencement exercises;

reporting and/or disclosing information to the National Privacy Commission and other government bodies or agencies as may be required by law;

conducting research or surveys for purposes of institutional development;

sharing the student’s directory information to the Schools’ alumni association;

publishing and posting of academic, co-curricular and extra-curricular achievements and success, including honors lists and names of awardees in school premises and buildings, school bulletin boards, website, social media sites and publications;

marketing or advertising to promote the School, including its activities and events, through photos, videos, brochures, website posting, newspaper advertisements, physical and electronic bulletin boards, and other media;

The School may disclose personal information about a student to overseas recipients, for instance, to facilitate a school exchange. The School may also store personal information in the cloud which may mean that it resides on servers which are situated outside the Philippines.

How long will the school retain your information?

The School will retain your personal information indefinitely for historical and statistical purposes. In cases where a retention period is required by law, all records after such period will be duly and securely disposed of.

Security of personal information

The School’s staff are required to respect the confidentiality of your personal information and the privacy of individuals.

The School has in place steps to protect the personal information it holds from misuse, interference and loss, unauthorized access, modification or disclosure by use of various methods including locked storage of paper records and password access rights to computerized records.

How will the school handle data breach?

Any data security incident or breach that comes to the knowledge of the School will be recorded and reported as required by law. The School will take all necessary and reasonable steps to address such incident or breach and mitigate any negative effect of such incident or breach. If there is strong suspicion that an incident affects a student’s personal information, the School will notify the concerned student and/or parent of such incident in an appropriate manner.

What are the rights with respect to your information?

Under the Act, you may object to the processing of your personal data, have the right to obtain access to any personal information which the School holds about you and to advise the School of any perceived inaccuracy.

The School respects every parent’s right to make decisions concerning his/her child’s education. Generally, the School will refer any requests for consent and notices in relation to a student’s personal information to the parents. The School will treat consent given by parents as consent given on behalf of the student, and notice to parents will act as notice given to the student. However, the School may allow a student to give or withhold consent to the use of his/her personal information independently of his/her parents. This would normally be done only when the student is a college student and of legal age or if the student’s personal circumstances so warrant.

You may request to access your personal information, and/or have it corrected, erased, or blocked on reasonable grounds. The School reserves the right to deal with the matter in accordance with law.

Students will generally be able to access and correct or update their personal information through their parents, but college students of legal age may seek access and correction themselves.

To make a request to access or update any personal information the School holds about you, please submit your request and explain the reason for your by writing to the following personnel:

For Pre-School, Elementary and Junior HS Students

: Basic Ed Principal

For Senior High School Students

: SHS Principal

For College and Graduate Students

: College Dean

For transcript concerns

: University Registrar

The School may require you to verify your identity and specify what information you require. The School may charge a fee to cover the cost of verifying your application and locating, retrieving, reviewing and copying any material requested. If the School cannot provide you with access to that information, the School will provide you with written notice explaining the reasons for refusal.

ENQUIRIES

If you would like further information about the way the School manages the personal information it holds, or wish to complain that you believe that the School has breached the Act, please contact the School’s duly designated Data Privacy Officer:

Name

: Atty. Susan B. Jacinto

Legal Counsel

E-mail Address

: susanjacinto@baliuagu.edu.ph

Office Address

: 1069 Gil Carlos Street, Baliwag, Bulacan

The School will investigate any complaint and will notify you of the making of a decision in relation to your complaint as soon as is practicable after it has been made.